Clearly in preparation for the Dec. 9-10 “Summit for Democracy,” on Nov. 30 Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held a hearing on “United States Policy on Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The only two witnesses were Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols and Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Todd Robinson.
To set the tone, Menendez warned in his opening remarks that “authoritarianism” is stalking the region, naturally mentioning Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, El Salvador and Brazil, where “democratic backsliding” has become so great and corruption so rampant that urgent action is required to forge a “global strategy to confront repressive regimes and strengthen democracies"—the goal of the Democracy Summit. Otherwise, Menendez warned, tens of thousands more Ibero-Americans will leave their countries heading north toward the U.S., and Russia and China will move in to “gain a stronger foothold to exploit tensions and divisions” in the regions.
